THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. 



[NEW SERIES.] 



JANUAR Y 1829. 



I. A Sketch of the Topography and Geology of Lake Ontario, 



By J. J. BiGSBY, M.D. F.L. aiid G.S., For. Mem. Amer. 



Phil. Soc. ^-c.* 



[With a Map.] 



General Remarks. 



THE topographical part of this sketch of Lake Ontario has 

 been drawn up with a sole view to the subsequent geolo- 

 gical details. Statements having no reference to them 1 have 

 therefore usually avoided. Whenever minuteness is em- 

 ployed, it is to introduce a new and important fact, or to cor- 

 rect error. I refer more immediately to the admeasurements 

 of the shores and islands of the outlet ; which an official si- 

 tuation I once held, allowed me to make from the maps of the 

 Boundary Commission. The purposes of the commission not 

 requiring a map of this lake, I have not a new one to offer : — 

 the map accompanying these pages is taken from that of 

 Purdy, published by Faden, and will answer the present exi- 

 gency. 



The whole circumference of the lake is occupied by pro- 

 sperous agriculturists. Towns, villages, and hamlets innume- 

 rable, fill the fertile plains and undulations of its south bor- 

 ders, and especially in the neighbourhood of the small lakes. 

 They are rising uj) on all sides with inconceivable rapidity: 

 where the traveller of this year meets a wilderness, next year 

 he finds a great village or self-styled city, full of inhabitants, 

 receiving and distributing European merchandise with all the 



• Communicated by the Author. 

 Ne-io Series. Vol. 5. No. 25. ,/r/». 1829. B regularity 



